Chineham girl gets special wheelchair

ENDURING up to 70 seizures a day, young Molly Murray needed a special wheelchair that her parents were struggling to afford.

But a chance meeting led to a fundraising effort that has now delivered the wheelchair for her to use.

Julie Gary, community life champion at Asda, in Brighton Hill, spent nine weeks raising thousands of pounds for a much-needed wheelchair for five-year-old Molly.

On Saturday, Molly and her family – mum Susan, 41, dad Simon, 43, and sister Tabitha, eight, – went to the Brighton Way store to meet the people who made it happen.

“It has made a huge difference to Molly,” said Susan, of Petty’s Brook Road in Chineham. “The wheelchair is important to ensure she’s sitting correctly, and it helps manage that.”

As previously reported in The Gazette Molly’s family were struggling to pay £2,400 for a wheelchair made by specialist firm Leckey.

The youngster suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy which means she cannot walk, or talk, and struggles with chewing and swallowing.

She suffers from up to 70 seizures a day, and requires special equipment for many day-to-day tasks.

When Asda fundraiser Mrs Gary discovered Molly’s plight, she kick-started a fundraising campaign to help buy the wheelchair.

With the help of big-hearted shoppers she banked £1,390. This was bolstered by £500 donations from the Basingstoke Lions, and charity Sporting Footprints.

An additional £320 was donated by Jason Eldridge, of AA Medical.

Share article

“I was inspired by Molly,” said Mrs Gary. When I heard about what she needed, I decided there and then to raise the money.”

Lions president, Rex Sinden, from Oakley, said the club’s 19 members were delighted to have helped. Dan Gill, of Sporting Footprints, who is from Sherfield-on-Loddon, raised the cash by organising a family fun day at Sebastian’s Action Trust respite home Bluebells, in North Waltham.

Ipsoregulated

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standardards Organisations's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a compaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here